Tickers
Serving as the predominant form of exchanging text messages throughout Circlaria in the 1200s, the ticker consisted of a roll of special ticker paper running through a special viewport-and-keyboard apparatus, which displayed the messages sent and received.
The ticker paper used was something called multi-faceted paper, which was a special kind of paper capable of holding a special type of spellfire-script-based ink known as spellmark. Such spellmark was, in fact, made solely of spellfire scripts and not actual ink material, which meant that a user did not have to worry about having a consistent supply of ink available. This type of spellmark ink would turn visible or invisible depending on what type of a special light was shown on the paper in the viewport. With thousands of different colors of spellmark ink and thousands of corresponding hues of viewport light, a user could switch between multiple sets of spellmark text on the same space of ticker paper, which became useful when the user was switching between different people with whom he or she was exchanging ticker messages.
The viewport consisted of a box through which the ticker paper ran, a lens above the paper which directed the reflection of the paper up to a diagonal mirror, and a window through which the reflection ran from the mirror to the user for said user to view. Below this latter viewing window was a typing keyboard for the user to type out messages to send to the other party. This entire setup resembled an early computer in our world; but it is important to note that a ticker, in Circlaria, was not actually a computer.
Below the viewport and keyboard was the in-feed roll, which contained the portion of the ticker paper scroll that was unused, relative to the spellmark set being viewed at that given moment. Positioned above the viewport box and behind the mirror was the out-feed roll, which contained the used portion of the scroll. In all, the paper scroll part of this setup resembled roughly the same structure as the tape part of a tape cassette, or a film reel, in our world.
To exchange messages with a particular party, the user would first dial the ticker number of the person they would want to message, very much like dialing a phone number. For a ticker, the number dialing would command the ticker to set a particular viewport light hue to make visible the corresponding spellmark text as well as position the ticker paper scroll to the appropriate place where new messages were to be created. The user would then type the message and then push or pull a special lever on the left side, depending on the brand of ticker, to send the said message. When that happened, the message would be converted into special electronic pulses which traveled through a ticker cable between the party of the sender and the party of the receiver, very much like communications over a telephone landline. A response from that party would then come back to the original sender in the same fashion, with that latter message automatically printing out on the next spot on the ticker paper scroll to be displayed through the viewing port for the original user to see.
In other words, the appearance of this dialog resembled very much a typical chat log that we see in social media today. The exception with a ticker, though, was that everything occurred on, and was stored on, scrolls of ticker paper.
The Ticketer
The Ticketer was not a machine but a communication network existing solely among Members of the Third Level Society, which was founded in 1243 at Cabotton University. The Ticketer setup consisted of two ticker machines side-by-side, with the one on the left dedicated to one-on-one conversations, and the one on the right, known as the Public Sector, dedicated to Society-wide conversations and announcements.
It is important to note here that ticker machines outside of the Third Level Society handled ticker paper scrolls dedicated to one-on-one conversations, and were thus half the width of traditional office paper. This was also the case for ticker scrolls for the left-hand side of the Ticketer setup. However, the Public Sector of the Ticketer utilized a special type of setup using ticker paper scrolls that were the same width as traditional office paper, making it easier to view organizational announcements and group conversations.
Brief History
The form of communication discussed above had become mainstream in Remikra in the 1240s, right after the Retunian Revolution. And by the 1280s, this form of communication became convenient across numerous Circlarian nations, even across multiple continents. However, the need to have ticker scrolls available to use, a resource always in finite supply for the typical user, made this a form of communication that left a certain amount of technological advancement to be desired.
In 1301, the Occupational and Communication Engineers Association, or OCEA, brought into production a digital version of the ticker apparatus, which allowed spellmark text to be stored in and displayed from a special granular plane inside the device. The unlimited space available with the said granular plane eliminated the need for ticker paper scrolls. And this generation of ticker communication caught on in Circlaria despite the turbulent economic and political times.
The 1330s saw yet another generation of tickers, the apparatus of which consisted only of a keyboard and viewport, which was capable of remotely accessing spellmark text stored on granular planes in various central locations. This prototype was based off a similar system used by scholars and other people alike to access researchable information stored on granular planes across various libraries and academic centers, something to be discussed in a later article. In the 1350s, entrepreneurs began producing portable versions of these tickers.
The 1370s saw the production of a new generation of tickers in tablet form, with the viewport existing as a touchscreen with a holographic keyboard and its overall size being small enough for the device to fit in one's own pocket. This continues to be the predominant form of ticker communication technology used in the present day; though the ticker application exists alongside various other applications used on the same device.